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Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own use but nobody else?

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Re: Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own use but nobody else?

#121

Post by airstrike »

I wrote an app that takes all localized strings in an Xcode project, turns it into a json, batch translates it with the OpenAI API, validates the json, and then converts it back into a .xcstrings file that you can drop into your project. I was writing an app that I wanted to translate into X different languages, of which I only spoke a couple and not perfectly, and this was the solution. It turned out pretty good.

I've considered putting a little bit more elbow grease and turning into a packaged product but I'm not sure if there's demand for it out there.

Re: Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own use but nobody else?

#122

Post by xolox »

Over the years I've built lots of small and large tools for personal use, some of them I'm still planning to release as open source "one day", others I have no intention of ever releasing.

One of the biggest and most useful of those tools is a Django web interface that accepts JPG/PNG/PDF file uploads of scanned documents and in case of images (JPG/PNG) it will run "tesseract" to OCR extract text from the images (in case of PDF it will pdf2txt). The extracted text is stored in an SQLite database which enables keyword search in the uploaded documents.

I use this as my (digital) archive of important documents, e.g. mortgage, bank statements, insurance, medical files, etc. I just checked and I now have 1129 documents in there ranging all the way back to 2006 .

It's super useful to be able to go back in time digitally, without having to dive into the collection of physical binders with the real documents (ordered by year and month but nothing beyond that, given that there are usually only a handful of documents per month, and I can use the web interface as an index into the physical archive, if I ever need it).

Re: Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own use but nobody else?

#123

Post by RegW »

A long time ago - may be 15 years ago, I got really bored of listening to an hour of drive-time news on the radio twice a day. I then discovered podcasts, so I bought an MP3 player and wired it through my car stereo.

I found downloading podcasts manually a bit of a faff. So I wrote a bash/curl/xsd script to rattle through a list of RSS feeds, download new episodes and create a playlist. It ran on my laptop at home or work and plonked the result on my MP3 player via USB.

Now, years later, the script is essentially the same. Except it runs under termux on my phone, and VLC broadcasts the playlist direct to my car or home stereo via bluetooth.

Re: Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own use but nobody else?

#124

Post by metadat »

explorigin wrote: post #69

I once ripped the corner of my windows install code sticker. I was missing the last 2 characters. I wrote a script in SikuliX to bruteforce the remaining 2 characters. It took about 4 hours to run but in the end, I got the full valid code.

SikuliX looks quite useful.

http://sikulix.com/

Re: Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own use but nobody else?

#125

Post by mmphosis »

Lots. They mostly perform automation, shortcuts: hotkeys, commands, scripts, aliases, functions, AutoKey, ... They've taken anywhere from years to minutes. The software gets used frequently or it gets deleted.

For example: p will do cat (or hexdump or ...) or ls depending on file (type) or directory. Let me show you shebang which is just a memory aid:

  $ show shebang

  .../bin/shebang
  #!/usr/bin/env sh
  head -n1 "$0"

Re: Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own use but nobody else?

#126

Post by digdugdirk »

rye-neat wrote: post #113

I'm building a streetable rock crawler out of a 78 F150 with a custom radius-arm suspension in the front. I needed to measure the deflection of the drag-link & track-bar as the front axle cycled up and down while changing a few variables: mounting locations, drag-link/track-bar angles, and drag-link/track-bar lengths. I used plain Javascript to display a graph, lines representing the drag-link and track-bar, enabled…

I'm a mechanical engineer, so I'm always intrigued by visual calculations like this that exist outside the standard CAD/excel paradigm. Is there any particular reason you went this route for this application? Do you use a pre-built framework to enable rapid creation and iteration of the setup?

Re: Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own use but nobody else?

#127

Post by silvanocerza »

Yup, it's a stupid tool in Rust to keep my soundbar alive.

Turns out that JBL thought it's a good idea to completely cut sound when there's nothing playing and ramp it back up in a perceptible fraction of second so that you miss some part of whatever you're listening to. This is especially annoying when watching anything with people talking.

Here's the code for anyone interested, it also contains a more thorough rant in the README.md. https://github.com/silvanocerza/orpheus

Re: Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own use but nobody else?

#128

Post by geocrasher »

rye-neat wrote: post #113

I'm building a streetable rock crawler out of a 78 F150 with a custom radius-arm suspension in the front. I needed to measure the deflection of the drag-link & track-bar as the front axle cycled up and down while changing a few variables: mounting locations, drag-link/track-bar angles, and drag-link/track-bar lengths. I used plain Javascript to display a graph, lines representing the drag-link and track-bar, enabled…

That is really cool. I haven't built a rig like you, but I have it on my bucket list to build a fully dressed rock crawler out of a Mitsubishi Montero 2dr (also sold as a Dodge Raider in the states). It'll be leaf sprung to start, but using your method of going 4 link would be preferable to the "build and pray" method that most people seem to take.

Re: Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own use but nobody else?

#130

Post by unsupp0rted »

I was selling an apartment in a developing country. I wanted to know, given the constantly updating property sales tax and rapidly worsening exchange rate, how much I’d end up pocketing in USD, if I sold for X vs X - 5% vs X - 10%, etc

That would inform my “I’m willing to go as low as” selling price.

So I built myself an app to scrape the current tax from the government’s online calculator and assemble a dozen what-if scenarios, given the current exchange rate.

When I found one that would let me break even, cash in hand after all fees and taxes, that became my price floor.

It worked. Now I don’t need my app anymore.

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